Love 86 (1986)

Left to right: Leena, Omi, Vicky, and Esha. Now what does that spell?

I will admit that I don’t expect a lot from unsubtitled 80s movies, but this was awfully sweet. I can’t pretend that I understood everything that happened, but the basic plot was standard, and sound effects alerted me if anything dramatic was happening. Leena and Esha (Neelam) are sisters, whose mother, Lakshmi (Tanuja) wants them to get married to rich men with prestigious jobs. She isn’t interested in anything irrelevant like her daughters’ happiness and she’ll stop at nothing to get them to do exactly what she wants. She’s just a wonderful evil bitch, I loved it.

Even her dog doesn't like her!

Phata Poster Nikla SHAHID!

SHAHID! You’re back! Finally! This movie is a beautiful thing for any Shahid Kapoor fan who has been waiting years to see him in anything good*. It’s completely his movie. It’s Sashapalooza. He’s in almost every frame, making faces and emoting and I laughed my pants off.

*Are there any other kinds of Shahid Kapoor fans? The lucky ones who don’t know he did anything besides Jab We Met?

I have no idea why this is getting bad reviews. It was hilarious. There wasn’t a big crowd at the theater, but everyone seemed to be really enjoying it, so it was a lot of fun. I’m still confused by their trend of showing a post-intermission trailer-- I’m not sure if that’s an Eros thing or what, but we got Krrish 3, which was cool on the big screen. At least it wasn’t the horrible mood-killer that the Bajatey Raho trailer was in the middle of Lootera.

Shahid Kapoor plays Vishwas Rao, whose widowed mother Savitri (Padmini Kolhapure) has only one dream: to see her only son become an honest police officer. Vishwas, naturally, has only one dream as well-- he wants to be a film star. Despite this, they are close and their relationship is very sweet. (They have a song!) Padmini has the filmi maa thing DOWN, by the way. She has all the appropriate feelings, all the right dialogues, everything turned up to 11, but she’s still a unique character with backstory and everything. Plus she’s always ready to tuck in her sari and go after thugs when necessary. When you come down to it, their relationship is what drives the film and both Shahid and Padmini are excellent in portraying their slightly silly, but ultimately good characters. Honestly, it’s one of the most enjoyable family dynamics I’ve seen on screen in a while. Savitri has dreams for her son, but really she just wants him to be happy. Vishwas isn’t a mama’s boy, but he’d still do anything for her just because she’s his maa and he loves her. This does mean that the romance track in the movie kind of takes a backseat, but that’s okay. It’s a lot more satisfying to see the hero in emotional turmoil over the plight of the mother instead of the girl who randomly jumped on the back of his scooter at the beginning of movie.